Tesla has already made great strides when it comes to achieving mainstream acceptance of plug-in electric vehicles. Now, there are rumors that the EV manufacturer might be looking toward pioneering an even newer type of car: EVs that don't plug in at all.
Electrek reported that Tesla may be close to acquiring a German company called Wiferion that was founded in 2016 and focuses on creating inductive — wireless — charging for industrial robots and EVs.
While the deal is not done yet, Tesla has been named in an official filing. According to Business Insider (Google-translated from German), "One of the Wiferion investors had confirmed the exit to an 'interesting buyer' without naming a name. … Tesla is likely to have paid at least a mid-to-high double-digit million amount for the Bavarian startup."
One issue with wireless charging is it has been much less efficient than plug-in charging. However, according to Electrek, "the technology has been closing the gap in recent years," opening the door for this futuristic advancement.
Tesla appears to be winning its battle to make its charging port the dominant one in North America, but that could eventually prove irrelevant if wireless car charging becomes the way of the future.
Tesla teased the concept of a wireless home charging port at its most recent investor day, although there were no details provided at that time; the preview was just limited to a visual rendering of what such a device might look like.
"I've owned all EVs for nearly 3 years now and I still sometimes forget to plug in," wrote one commenter at that time. "Having that wireless charger would be great if we can tell it we only need charging when the battery hits a certain customizable lower level (able to be overrode when necessary as we can now). We'd never even be able to leave home without at least enough juice for our commutes."
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